Thursday, December 27, 2018

Sudan Protests : It is not the end but it is just the start “Updated”

Sudan’s Sudanese Professional Association “SPA” announced Wednesday night that starting from 27 December 2018, Sudanese journalists are going to organize a strike under the umbrella of “The Sudanese journalists network”.
The strike is to send a message against the current and recent crackdown against the media and journalists.
The strike of the journalists is a follow up to a strike organized by doctors across the country according to SPA on its official statement.

The announcement comes as part of a civil opposition movement is being built against longtime President and dictator Omar El-Bashir.

On Tuesday, Thousands of Sudanese people mostly youth proved that they were serious when they said that they would march to the Presidential palace in Khartoum to present a petition to El-Bashir demanding to step down from Presidency.
Thousands of protesters tried to march in Khartoum to the presidential palace in the march originally arranged by “SPA”.
Sudanese people including women went protested against
El-Bashir on Tuesday "Amaged Salah"
Unfortunately and expectedly they did not reach the president palace as Sudanese forces blocked the way to the Palace and dispersed the march that turned in to several smaller protests in several areas of Khartoum by force according to eye-witnesses as well as video clips.

I remember reading that some protesters were praying in the Grand Mosque of Khartoum and the security forces decided to close down the Mosque while they were praying  !!!!
There were also several protests in several Sudanese states.
Protesters from all ages in the anti-El-Bashir protest on Tuesday
in Khartoum "Amaged Salah"
There have been injured according to testimonies as well as video clips. "I am working on a compilation right now"


I do not know what is the final countdown of the dead and the injured in Tuesday’s protests but on Wednesday one confirmed death was announced.

Amnesty International said on Monday that 37 protesters were shot dead by the Sudanese security forces in the past 6 days. The protests were recorded in 13 Sudanese states out of 18 States.

On Tuesday, El-Bashir addressed shortly in his visit to the State of Gezira saying the “fact that the public attended his speech is the best answer for those traitors and agents who spread online rumors” !!
He also said that there is a “war” against Sudan because “it is hanging on to its religion !!”
The best part of the speech when he spoke about the economic crisis saying that “God provides Livelihood !!”

Omar El-Bashir was supposed to address the public at Al Kamlin stadium in the state of Gezira later Tuesday but he left urgently to Khartoum.
Sudanese protest
Children and elderly participated too in the protest
on Tuesday in Khartoum

The convicted war criminal was supposed to stay three days in Gezira state but instead, he left the city of Rufaa where he was going to inaugurate a bunch of projects as the locals protested against him.
There is an amazing video for locals including women chanting “Fly away El-Bashir” as an official convoy of 4x4 vehicles passed by.

The security forces in Khartoum used shotguns and live ammunition to disperse the protests according to eye-witnesses testimonies as well as video clips emerging from the country all day long.
The protesters were peacefully as far I read and followed online. Downtown Khartoum that includes the biggest market in Sudan was not attacked or looted.

It is interesting to see that El-Bashir and his cronies decided to go to Geizra state when it was among the states that witnessed protests against him in the past 48 hours.

Disturbing enough, Sudanese State TV broadcasted footage showing the alleged confession of three arrested student activists that they were to spread “violence, sabotage and riot” in Sudan after receiving training from Israeli intelligence !!!
Sudanese student
One of the students confessing allegedly on TV on Tuesday
The three arrested student activists are from Darfur originally and are studying at the University of Sennar in the state of Sennar.
They were allegedly arrested among other students from Darfur in the past two days.
The arrested students included the head of Darfur Students Club at Sennar University Mikky Allam.
The Arab and Egyptian Media are still ignoring shamefully but not so surprisingly the protests in Sudan.
Even Al-Jazeera News Arabic Service “AJA”  was very selective in its coverage but for the record, its viewers say it began to catch up on Wednesday.
Sudanese viewers already found out that the Doha-based-news-channel correspondent in Khartoum changed his statement that the security forces attacked the protesters by live ammunition to by tear gas grenades only.

They also found his twitter account where he stated explicitly that the security forces.
Updated: According to Sudanese Journalists Network “SJN”, AJA Correspondent Ahmed El-Raheed was attacked and assaulted by security forces when he was only doing his job.

Still, to be fair, Qatari-funded Al-Araby TV correspondent in Khartoum was stopped by security forces in Sudan while doing his job covering the protests and was given 24 hours to leave the country.
Al-Araby TV is just the start from what I understood from activists and tweeps from Khartoum.
More to news agencies and newspapers to follow if they report the truth.
Sudanese Journalists Network also reported that on Tuesday at least 9 Sudanese reporters and journalists were detained across the country during their coverage.

Some were released on the same day and some other were released after 24 hours following their detention. In a statement issued by SJN Tuesday night, there was huge censorship “which it described as tribal in Arabic!!” imposed on the newspapers on Tuesday.

For me and I would say a group of Egyptians, I see what happened in Sudan on 25 December 2018 too similar to 25 January 2011 which also started with a group of activists. It was too nostalgic for me while following the news on Twitter.

Speaking about Egyptians, a group of Egyptian intellectuals, activists and public figures issued a statement on Tuesday endorsing and supporting the Sudanese uprising against Omar El-Bashir condemning also the way his security forces use against peaceful protesters. 

There is something going on in Sudan and Tuesday is not the end of it. Of course, it will be a miracle for real if it continues peacefully without cruel crackdown because in the end, we speak about a man who does not care to start a civil war to keep the presidency and leadership post.

Already if there is a president in the Arab world to compete with Bashar El-Assad and to beat him in his own game “Killing his own people to remain in power”, it will be Omar El-Bashir who has got a very strong chance to beat Al-Assad.

I do not know nor anyone can be sure if it is going to be a new full revolution liberating the Sudanese people from dictatorship or another failed attempt of an uprising cracked down by a rotten corrupted cruel Arab regime.
Time will tell.

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